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AntVR, the Beijing-based headset company, has something worth celebrating within only a few hours of launching their AR headset MIX Kickstarter yesterday. After only eight hours on the crowdfunding site, the company has already reached their goal of $50,000, and it doesn’t show signs of stopping.

Mix isn’t typically what we think of when we imagine the next generation of AR devices; it’s a ‘tethered’ AR headset that requires a VR-ready gaming PC to run it, and primarily draws its content from Steam in a bid to repurpose VR games and apps with black or dark backgrounds, and display them in AR. While it isn’t your typical hardware pitch, it appears AntVR’s Mix has resonated with Kickstarter backers to substantial effect; at the time of this writing, the campaign already has around $75,000 with 29 days left to go.

AntVR today released the following update to campaign backers:

Hi everyone!

For our first update we just wanted to say we’re thrilled to see that after nearly 8 hours, we’ve already reached our goal with 75 backers! Thank you so much to all those who have jumped on board this early. We’re so happy to see such initial enthusiasm for the project—it makes us very excited about the state of the AR market.

We’ve already received a lot of great feedback and we’ll continue to update our FAQ and address the questions you’re sending. Please continue to spread the word about MIX and keep sending us more questions and suggestions. We have a long way to go still and are very much looking forward to engaging more with all of you and your ideas throughout the duration of the campaign. This is why we’re back on Kickstarter—to make this a collaborative process from start-to-finish with all of you die-hard AR enthusiasts, and we’re off to a fantastic start.

Thanks again, and stay tuned

The company hasn’t released word on stretch goals yet, although we’d expect to see some of the optional modules come to lower funding tiers.

Image courtesy AntVR

The headset, which requires either the optional inside-out tracking module, or outside-in module, to give it 6DOF positional tracking, is said to feature two 1,200 × 1,200 displays with a 90Hz refresh rate, boasting a 96-degree FOV. Additional accessories include things such optional eye-tracking insert, hand-tracking module, and 6DOF controllers. At its lowest funding tier ($500), the headset ships with a single 3DOF controller (rotation only) and no 6DOF headset tracking.

Mix boasts “dual-channel mixed optics,” which the company claims is a multiple layered optic with two different optical channels for enlarging the display’s light while allowing ambient light to travel to the user’s eye. AntVR claims Mix has a field of view that’s “much broader than many other devices.”

Despite the usual bluster common to hardware Kickstarter campaigns, AntVR appears to be pretty forthcoming in a recent video, which shows a view through Mix’s optics using an iPhone X to record, revealing what a user should expect in terms of imagery (linked below).

We haven’t gone hands-on with Mix yet, so we can’t speak to the quality or utility of the experience presented here. Backers are however slated to find out by December 2018 when the headset is estimated to ship.

this company has flopped in this same situation before so don’t hold your breath.

JJ

I actaully can’t believe people backed this. Moral of the story, you can make a bogus kickstarted, collect money, fail, and launch the kickstarter a second time…. I think the antvr headset is actually a scam. Look up their first kickstarter is was a complete fail, they have no capability to achieve this and they’ve already proved that.

NooYawker

How do you trust a company that has a statue of Marvel’s AntMan? You know they didn’t get Marvel’s endorsement. They should get sued by Marvel.

JJ

great point

dk

also a stormtrooper ….how dare they buy shit ….those bastards

NooYawker

I guess the name AntVR next to a statue of ant man was lost on you.

jj

exactly, and Chinese companies dont care at all about patents, or endorsement. It pretty much part of their culture to steal IP.

I remember antvr trying to make shitty headsets since the dk1/dk2 days having an ant-man and stormtooper figure is irrelevant to anything …..they r not putting antman on their box or some shit like that

JJ

thats wrong, If your product name is similar enough which antVR is similar to AntMan and you include their product,art ,images, anything that relates to one of their icons, which in this case is the antman suit, then they can take you to court for multiple reasons.

Not only are they benefiting from piggy backing off of the movies fame but this could be defamation to the antman name by relating themselves to it. It’s all up to how marvel perceives the situation and if they can pursued a judge, (if they were in america).

Since they’re in China there’s not much that can be done cause china doesn’t care about global patents or american patents and copyrights.

If they were in America you could bet they’d be getting sued for putting that in a promotional/advertising video.

Marvel owns the rights to the ant man image you can’t use it in relations to your product even if its just a similar name without marvels consent. And in the end its pretty loosely based off of who has enough money to produce a better case and pursued a judge. Not much of the fine details in court are set it really comes down to how they feel and again how persuasive they are to make their case.

You’d be amazed at what passes as copyright infringement.

dk

no they can’t xD ….they can take u to court if u put ANT-MAN on the box or if u sell ANT-MAN action figures ……..not if the name of the company is ANTvr and u have a stormtrooper and ant-man suite in your office

jj

its a publicized advertisement leveraging their trademarked image. it can go to court, but your right if they did any of those things it’d be extremely concrete.

I was just trying to highlight the fact that these rules are pretty loose and it comes down to if marvel can convince a judge its effected them, which is easier to do the more money and more iconic items you have.

Kenji Fujimori

That is why never buy Chinese crap.. only buy Japanese and American.

Courtney A Jeff

I believe Jesus is the Son of God and He is my Lord and Savior.

JJ

Hail Sata the son of God he is our real lord and savior.

ps fuck off with your religious shit in these places

Courtney A Jeff

I do not do this to offend but to bless people with the solution to their problems and answer to their questions.God the Father who sent Jesus His Son did it out of love and hope in no other possible hope but His Son.

dk

do u want me to “magically enchant u”(bless) u in the name of Brahma or Zeus or about the good news that all gods r incompatible and have never been demonstrated ….now u know what your chanting about imaginary friends and fairy tales sounds like to people not in your particular cult

jambans

solution to what problem? your insecurities and feel for a need to compensate for your shittyness?

Save your money and wait till the opensource project becomes available from ‘Leap Motion’ or look into a number of OEM AR visors you can use with your phone if you want to play with this. I am also close to making my own version using the the parts from a HP MSXR headset with a OEM AR visor and just finishing up some custom 3D fabricated parts to make it prettier before making the instructions available. The cool thing is I have been working on incorporating the stereo SLAM cameras in the HP headset for inside/out tracking so no need to add an aftermarket tracking system. One caveat is that you will have to most of the leg work in mirroring the images and applying a lens anti-distortion shader in the MSXR pipeline so you are on your own to creating content, but something tells me they won’t have much in the line of content either since they borrow so heavily from other positional tracking companies, including the Leap Motion demo.